[DemonicLemming]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Postal_Blue /img/forum/go_quote.gif Let the mania begin. I can not find the clip right now, but this morning there was an ESPN interview with LeBron James and he was donning a pair of Beats. LeBron and Dre, that's a knockout blow.

Not when the general public hesitates to cough up $50 for a set of cans, and not when the headphones in question don't have disgustingly sloppy, boomy bass, which is what the majority of listeners the headphones are targeted at seem to love.

Yes haters, go ahead and flame me, but I know car audio, and I know what the majority of hip-hop "common" listeners like. You have no idea how many free-air 6x9s I've seen in the back windows of people who blast hip-hop constantly. Clarity and precision at high volume is NOT a concern of theirs, and as such, these headphones don't even work for their target audience.

 

[chinesekiwi]

Can some great person enlighten all the non-audiophile dumb public crew by posting a 'fake review' of it on the Apple Store and just being brutally honest about them and Bose as well. It'll give the public who are considering these both points of view as they are unlikely to visit Head-fi when buying these and read the fanboi dumb reviews on the Apple Store instead. Do it for Head-fi!

 

[centerfold]

The discrimination in this thread is killing me.

 

[DemonicLemming]

Quote:

Originally Posted by centerfold /img/forum/go_quote.gif The discrimination in this thread is killing me.

 

[uraflit]

^ i love that picture lol

 

[centerfold]

right back at you.

 

[catscratch]

So, I take it that because the name and endorsement of these headphones is racially sensitive, we aren't allowed to be negative about them without being called racist and discriminatory?

I'm not going to listen to these headphones. In fact, I'm going to try very, very hard to stay as far away from these headphones as possible. Not because they're made by Monster or because they're endorsed by Dr. Dre, but because I don't care for any headphone that has active noise-cancelling circuitry, as it has been my experience that all such headphones seriously degrade the sound. In the world of cheap, high-quality custom-molded IEMs like Livewires, I see no point, for audiophiles on the move, to invest not-insubstantial sums in something like this.

I guess that makes me pretty racist.

 

[centerfold]

No, your reasoning is valid.

I'm just seeing post in this thread going "oh, this headphone is endorsed by a hip hop artist. first all, people who listen to hip hop cant afford these and they certainly don't enjoy sound quality just lots of awesome super duper bass AMIRITE? ? ?"

You are judging these cans based on the cans, while mr DemonicLemming can go about with useless comments he stated. You are giving a negatory review on the product, he decides to go after the target audience.

I don't even listen to a lot of hip hop/rap, and the reason why I won't buy these is that I don't have $350 to spend on cans. I just hate how people are able to just go around making these stereotypes and getting away with it.

Think people who listen to folk or dance or what not could afford $350 cans either? Is the person who listens to their rock on ibuds enough justification that all rockers like to listen to music on horrible earbuds and therefore there shouldn't be high-end headphones or earphones that suit their genre?
There are plenty of people that listen to rap that have money to spend and enjoy quality equipment (like people on head-fi omg really ?? ? ?), just like people for every other musical genre

That's the point I am trying to get at.

Insult the phones, don't insult the "target audience".

 

[Drag0n]

Being one of the very FEW that has actually HEARD these headphones......Ive stated like 3 or 4 times in this thread that THEY DO NOT HAVE A HIP HOP BOOMY FLABBY FART-CANNON SOUND!!!!!

Ok???? So everyone can forget the GENRE, the RACE, and who ENDORSED them!!!

Theyre balanced and dont distort or get boomy or flabby at extremely high volume.
I just dont know how good they REALLY sound for the price, because they had them BLASTING on their own system and i couldnt try them on my own system.
Theyre not RAP PHONES, (in a stereotypical sense according to some views spoken of here recently).
Im sure (forgetting price) many people here would like them.

Now please kiddies,...play nice!!!

 

[DemonicLemming]

Quote:

Originally Posted by centerfold /img/forum/go_quote.gif No, your reasoning is valid. I'm just seeing post in this thread going "oh, this headphone is endorsed by a hip hop artist. first all, people who listen to hip hop cant afford these and they certainly don't enjoy sound quality just lots of awesome super duper bass AMIRITE? ? ?" You are judging these cans based on the cans, while mr DemonicLemming can go about with useless comments he stated. You are giving a negatory review on the product, he decides to go after the target audience. I don't even listen to a lot of hip hop/rap, and the reason why I won't buy these is that I don't have $350 to spend on cans. I just hate how people are able to just go around making these stereotypes and getting away with it. Think people who listen to folk or dance or what not could afford $350 cans either? Is the person who listens to their rock on ibuds enough justification that all rockers like to listen to music on horrible earbuds and therefore there shouldn't be high-end headphones or earphones that suit their genre? There are plenty of people that listen to rap that have money to spend and enjoy quality equipment (like people on head-fi omg really ?? ? ?), just like people for every other musical genre That's the point I am trying to get at. Insult the phones, don't insult the "target audience".

Please, again, see my comments. If you're going to try and say that the MAJORITY of hip-hop listeners are actually concerned about proper frequency response and clarity, you're loony. I've built enough car audio systems for people who listen primarily to hip-hop to know that, again, for the majority, the loudest bass possible is the bottom line for them.

If you take offense at that, go right ahead. I really don't care. I never said ALL people who enjoy hip-hop couldn't afford them, nor did I say ALL people who enjoy hip-hop are only concerned with uber bass. Reading comprehension is your friend. I'm not making any stereotypes, nor "insulting the target audience," merely stating why these things will fail. Quit trying to read inane racism into it. The majority of the people I mentioned I built car systems for were suburban white college kids, so bloody well piss off with the "zomg ur racist!" crape.

If these were marketed at metalheads, they'd fail too, primarily due to the price. The SPECIFIC reason these headphones will fail at interesting their target audience - the AVERAGE hip hop listener, who is NOT that concerned about clarity and detail (neither are most rockers either, so don't even start) and who IS concerned about having lots and lots of bass (and if you think hip hop ISN'T about lots of bass, then you're off your damned tracks) - is because they don't deliver that brain-quivering bass AND they're way over the price the average person - did you miss where I said the average person doesn't even want to spend $50 on headphones, without any specific reference to the target audience? oops, you screwed up - wants to pay for headphones. On top of that, the majority of people who listen to music would hesitate to be seen in public wearing large headphones, scoring yet another point in the "Why these will fail" category.

 

[oarnura]

I was at the Apple Store and got to check these out using my perdonal iPhone.

My impressions are:

- Quite comfortable.
- The Highs are a little "hot" for my tastes, a bit bright but not jarringly so.
- The Bass is very good not boomy at all. Quite clean actually.
- The Sound stage is good.
- The mids were a little recessed.

Overall, I think they are far superior to the Bose products. They aren't the most accurate headphones but aren't tailored to any particular Genre.

I didn't get that much time with them but I wouldn't mind giving it a try again.

I don't get all the comments here that have pre-judged the phones because of the Dre association. I don't patronize Monster for my audio needs but even I will admit that these were quite good.

I don't know if $350 good but they certainly are better than Bose QC3s.

 

[oarnura]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DemonicLemming /img/forum/go_quote.gif If these were marketed at metalheads, they'd fail too, primarily due to the price. The SPECIFIC reason these headphones will fail at interesting their target audience - the AVERAGE hip hop listener, who is NOT that concerned about clarity and detail (neither are most rockers either, so don't even start) and who IS concerned about having lots and lots of bass (and if you think hip hop ISN'T about lots of bass, then you're off your damned tracks) - is because they don't deliver that brain-quivering bass AND they're way over the price the average person - did you miss where I said the average person doesn't even want to spend $50 on headphones, without any specific reference to the target audience? oops, you screwed up - wants to pay for headphones. On top of that, the majority of people who listen to music would hesitate to be seen in public wearing large headphones, scoring yet another point in the "Why these will fail" category.

Define fail? As in won't recover production cost and turn a profit or won't become the next iPod of headphones? That is very important.

From what I can tell these are probably super high margin products with no discounts, given the limited retail channels. So I think they will be fairly profitable for Monster even if they discount them heavily to spur sales.

It could also have the reverse effect where the hip-hop crowd, the ones you seem to have met, might get a little knowledge about what constitutes good bass. "Hey if this is what Dre hears in the music studio, that must be what good bass sounds like".

Anything is possible. I don't disagree that most people (Hip-Hop listening or not) think that bloated boomy bass is good bass.

 

[wnmnkh]

.....I may have chance to listen them, but so far it indicates that these headphones are not really good for hip-hop or rap, since the bass is not boomy at all. ;p

Edit : I just don't find this any racial problem.

 

[rhythmdevils]

I listened to these at Best Buy the other day. Didn't realize there was so much hu-bub about them!

I can't say much on sound though, because the way they were set up for auditioning was so frustrating that I walked away pretty quick. They were set up at a specially made listening station for them, at the front of the store. there were light up buttons you could push for 3 genres of music

R&B
HiP HOP
and something else

and a fourth button that said something like "POWER BOOST", which maybe raised the voume a little?

but there was NO volume control, and they were set to an excrutiating volume, so i couldnt let them stay fully sealed on my head. really annoying marketing scam. we all know how catchy high volume can be. but in their defence, they did sound pretty clean, a little prickly on the top end (but they were too loud) and the bass was STRONG but not bad subwoofer boomy. I'd say they sounded similar to K81dj's but with more soundstage. My impression was that they were trying to mimic the car audio sort of sound signature. and they were defintiely optimized for rap, etc. not sure they would sound any better than a farting hyeena for folk music...

but they weren't that terrible. i wouldnt pay 350 though

 

[Fungi]

And once again we return to Jude's point about it being an entry into hifi for the masses. "certainly... better than Bose QC3s" is a great thing; hopefully more people will realize that Bose is not the end-all for audio.